Screaming
by InsideofChaos
Summary: It was a vicious cycle. If he did anything, it was because it had already been done. Slight AU.


**A/N: I can truly say I have no clue where this came from. AU because I'm mixing history from most of the universes. Those quotes, there at the end? Those are the approximate lines from the 1986 movie.  
**

**Disclaimer: Do I really need one? OK, fine. NOT MINE.  
**

* * *

_The way he saw it, it started with…._

_No._

_There was no beginning. There was no beginning, because how could there be a beginning if there was no __**end?**_

* * *

The last thing he remembered was his death.

He onlined, still screaming from the pain of being torn to bits by technology _he _had designed. Then he was still on Cybertron. But not his Cybertron. Not the Cybertron that was dying, drained of all energy.

This was the Golden Age. His first glance at himself revealed that he was no longer even in his body, but Megatron's.

* * *

He spent years, reliving the past, seeing the roots of the war build and build, his frustration with the caste system growing with each passing year. _Why was nothing being done?_

He built an army. He set his eyes on a goal – the death of the Prime and the destruction of the Matrix of Leadership. Without the Matrix, the future would never happen. The war would never drain Cybertron and then leave it to die.

* * *

He won against his opponents, either bringing them to his side or crushing them. All the while, he kept a careful optic out for a specific mech.

A certain Seeker. Starscream.

* * *

When he finally found him, he was exactly how he remembered him. That arrogant stance, his cocky smile – and with the skills to back it up, truth be told.

He knew he didn't even have to help him – Starscream would claw, betray, and disembowel his way up through the ranks on his own.

* * *

When Starscream became his Second in Command and Air Commander, he knew it was a only matter of time. Time until that first betrayal, that first disobedience, the first plot to kill him.

When it never came, he grew frustrated and anxious. He lashed out at his subordinates, earning himself a reputation for his temper alone.

He began to provoke Starscream, baiting him, leaving himself wide open for snarled remarks, either to his face or behind his back, he didn't care.

Still, Starscream was the ever-loyal lieutenant.

Still, Starscream was confident that they could win the war.

Still, Starscream looked to him for approval – approval that he made sure, simply through his attitude, was never to come.

Starscream was _happy._

He started to hate him then and there.

* * *

The day of their first drastic defeat, he looked to Starscream. The blasted Seeker was comforting his trine instead of ranting about how _he_ would be a better leader.

Damn him. _WHY?_

Then, finally, he realized.

He took his anger and hate and rage and _despair_ out on his Second for the first time that day.

Starscream never trusted him again.

* * *

He made a decision.

He was going to offline Starscream. The next time that the little traitor decided to shoot him in the back, he would _finally _put himself out of his misery.

After all, if Starscream died here and now in the - past, was it? - , he wouldn't become….whatever it was he was now.

* * *

He couldn't do it.

He had powered up his fusion cannon. He had even_ told _Starscream he was going to offline him.

But….

He'd looked at him. In just that way. That mixture of fear, awe, and angry pride that he _knew. _He knew it all too well. He knew exactly what had been going through the Seeker's mind at that moment.

And that was what stopped him.

* * *

Countless vorns of war, of fighting and _losing_ to the Autobots, or fighting and winning against Starscream had lead to this.

Not even being able to truly move on his own, carried by Soundwave into Astrotain.

He knew what came next. Of course he did.

It had come about by his own hand.

* * *

Floating in space, left to die among already offline members of his army, he waited.

He was not disappointed.

* * *

When Unicron made his offer, he at first refused.

He wanted it to be finished.

But then he stopped. He would finally get the chance to end it before it began.

"I accept your offer."

* * *

Starscream's terror at his approach no longer saddened or angered him.

He was tired. He would end this.

"Here's a hint!"

* * *

It was the last thing he remembered.

* * *

_He onlined screaming._

_

* * *

_**A/N #2: Due to an accident at the original publication, I marked this as incomplete, instead of a oneshot like I had intended. However, would anybody like to see this continued - more likely as a companion fic, not additional chapters?**_  
_


End file.
